ARCHIP’s 2026 Summer School welcomed 28 students from the Czech Republic, Poland, Canada, Denmark, and Taiwan to an open exploration of the material possibilities of concrete and glass in architecture. While the programme overall addressed the meeting of concrete and glass in architecture, the workshop (being more experimental and exploratory in nature) furthermore sought strategies, techniques, and even beautiful accidents that could inform new methods of design and expand the emerging knowledge base for 3D-printed buildings.

The workshop takes place in close cooperation with Federico Díaz (So Concrete), MVRDV, and the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU).

Among the many excursions offered as part of the program were visits to Bořislavka, matériO’ Prague, and SIPRAL — to experience materiality and its manufacturing firsthand; as well as Novotný Glass and Lasvit Nový Bor — to explore Czech glassmaking traditions and contemporary glass production — and a visit to the glass workshop in Dolany nad Vltavou, which offered the opportunity to push material boundaries through live experiments with glass and concrete.

These extensive hands-on outings were balanced out with intensive studio work, which investigated patterns, structures, and inspirations found in nature; synthesized and interpreted what had been learned during the site visits; and developed concepts, tested prototypes, and refined ideas through research and experimentation and dialogue. And with the end of the Summer School comes its final exhibition — installed on the school grounds —  presenting 3D-printed samples developed throughout the workshop.